Hymn History: It Is Well With My Soul

Horatio Spafford swung his little daughter Tanetta into his arms for one last kiss. Bessie clung to his legs, while Maggie and Annie looked wide-eyed at the huge ship overhead. “Are we really going on that?” Annie exclaimed, excitement shining in her eyes.

“Look,” Maggie pointed, “It’s called the Ville du Havre! What a funny name!”

Anna Spafford looked at her husband and smiled apprehensively. “We shall miss you, my dear,” she said quietly.

“And I will miss all my ladies,” answered Horatio, “but it won’t be long. I’ll be with you in England as soon as I can.”

17 days later: Tap. Tap. Horatio rose from his work desk and pulled open the door. A young boy bobbed his cap and held out a piece of paper. “Telegram for you, Sir!”

Horatio dug for a coin in his pocket. “Thank you, my boy!” He shut the door and returned to his desk, opening the telegram with a flick of his finger. Two words blurred before his eyes as, for a frantic moment, his head and heart sought to make sense of the letters. Saved Alone. Oh, no, no, no. Could this mean—-? Was it–? Surely not—? Oh God, not his daughters!

Two Years Earlier…

Fire lit the Chicago sky on the night of October 8th, 1871, casting an eerie glow over the city. Smoke choked the streets as hapless residents fled the flaming fury. And a lawyer named Horatio Spafford watched as his financial investments went up in flames—quite literally. By the time the fire stopped burning on October 10th, his real estate was gone.

So in 1873, when his friend D.L. Moody announced an evangelistic campaign in England, Horatio and his wife Anna decided to cross the ocean as well. They could be supportive of Moody’s work, and how their family needed relief from the stress of the last, long months. Yet, pressing business would detain Horatio in Chicago, so they decided that Anna and their four daughters—Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta—would sail first, and then Horatio would join them in England as soon as possible.

Only seven days into the voyage, the SS Villa de Havre was struck by a British clipper in the middle of the Atlantic. The collision was devastating; in the terrifying moments that followed, the ship collapsed and the passengers were plunged into the dark depths of the ocean. Anna Spafford lost her grip on her baby, Tanetta. She never saw any of her four daughters again. In shock and grief, she sent that cryptic telegram to her husband when she reached London. Saved Alone.

A heartbroken man took the next ship to England. What were the financial losses of two years prior compared to the loss of his precious daughters? We can only imagine the thoughts that must have been going through his mind during that weary journey to join Anna.

The captain of his ship called Horatio to the deck as they approached the spot where his daughters had drowned. “This is it,” he told the grieving father. “This is the place.”

Horatio gazed at the deep, dark waves below. “It is well, the will of God be done,” he murmured.

Legend says he wrote the words to It is Well right then and there. We may never know for sure if this is true; the signature line of the hymn may well have been born at that time. But the song was not completed until three years later, when he showed a thoughtfully written and revised poem to his friend Ira Sankey, back in Chicago.

Philip Bliss, a man with a tragic story of his own, set the words to music—a haunting, yet triumphant tune that we still sing today.

The Hymn.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

The words speak for themselves—the broken cry of a devastated heart, yet clinging to the truth. A grieving man preaching the gospel to himself again and again, reminding himself, “It is well with my soul!”

Greater than the grief; greater than the sorrow; greater than the intolerable tomorrow; greater than the pain that would never go away, was the assurance. Christ died for my sins. I am His. He loves me. Death is the not the end and not the victor; Christ is triumphant and coming again! Therefore, it is well with my soul.

Friend, I don’t know what you have gone through or are going through. But let the words of this hymn minister to you today; or treasure them up for a time when you will need them. Cling to the sure hope we have in Christ. No matter what this life may bring, joy and sorrow, it is forever well with the souls of those who know Jesus!

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee (Isaiah 26:3).